Today,the Israel Democracy Institute released its annual Peace Index. You can download the entire document here, but I’ll summarize the findings some of you may find surprising – and all Israel haters will find inconvenient.
1. 61% of Israeli Arabs surveyed describe their personal situation as good, with a further 31% as not bad
So only 8% of Arabs here say their personal situation is bad. I dare you to compare that with the sentiments of Arabs in any Arab country.
2. These positive results apply whether Muslim, Christian or Druze
3. A majority of Israeli Arabs (51%) surveyed are optimistic about Israel’s future
4. Most Israeli Arabs (55%) surveyed are proud to be Israeli
5. 25% of Israeli Arabs surveyed most identify as Israeli, and only half that as ‘palestinian’
Even though Israel haters love to refer to Israeli Arabs as palestinians, the Israeli Arabs surveyed would mostly rather be thought of as Israeli. As the study says, this counters “the widespread claim that a major process of Palestinization has taken.”
Not only that, but more Israeli Arabs surveyed see their strongest identity as ‘Israeli’ (25%) over ‘Arab’ (24%)!
The preference to identify as ‘Israeli’ over ‘palestinian’ applies whether we are talking Muslim or Christian.
6. Most Israeli Arabs surveyed (52%) see Israel’s military-security situation as good
7. Most Israeli Arabs surveyed (54%) agree Israel should fight terror as we see fit
Another one to make the haters’ heads spin!
